Mature movie star Stormy Daniels He returned to Donald Trump’s podium Criminal On Thursday, he pushed back during cross-examination against his defense attorney’s attempts to discredit him in sometimes strange and uncomfortable exchanges.
After testifying in New York’s Manhattan criminal court, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche again moved for a mistrial, saying he changed his story and was allowed to testify about matters unrelated to the case. He also asked the judge to waive a gag order to allow Trump to respond publicly to his testimony. State judge Juan Mercan rejected both requests.
“My concern is not just about protecting Ms. Daniels or the witness who has already testified. My concern is to preserve the integrity of the judicial process as a whole,” Merchan said of the gag order request.
Trump condemned the judge’s actions on Thursday and later called it a “disgrace” to reporters at the courthouse. “I am innocent and I am held in this court by a corrupt judge.
Daniels took to social media Thursday night to address Trump with a not-so-subtle dig. “Real men respond to testimony by swearing and taking the stand in court. Oh…wait. Never mind,” He wrote in X.
It is not clear Will Trump testify? in his own defense.
While Daniels was on the stand, Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheles grilled him about the $130,000 nondisclosure agreement Trump signed with then-lawyer Michael Cohen near the end of the 2016 election and tried to poke holes in his now-sworn testimony about sex. He says he’s with Trump, he denies it.
Necheles asked him about the number of porn films he had written and directed and said, “You have a lot of experience making fictional stories about sex.”
“Wow! Wow. I wouldn’t have put it that way,” Daniels responded. “Sex in movies is very real, just like what happened to me in that room” with Trump. He added: “If this story was false, I would write it to make it better.”
Necheles and Daniels have sparred over minor inconsistencies in Daniels’ stories, including in a 2011 interview where she claimed she had dinner with Trump, but now she never actually did.
“I had dinner in the room, but we never ate and we never did,” Daniels said. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger noted during reexamination that the 2011 interview article was “lightly edited.” “
Necheles also tried to dispute Daniels’ claims that she was scared when she saw Trump waiting for her on the bed in a T-shirt and boxers after leaving the bathroom, and that the porn actor would not be caught off guard. someone in their underwear.
Necheles asked for the first time in her life that someone had passed her. Daniels said it was the first time he had a bodyguard at the door with someone “twice my age and older than me.”
“You wanted money from President Trump, right?” Necheles asked earlier in their exchange. “No,” Daniels replied. “I have never asked President Trump for money,” he said. “I never specifically asked for money from anyone. In 2016, I asked for money to tell my story,” and it was Cohen who approached his attorney with the NDA. He said he thought the settlement was a “perfect solution,” giving him a paper trail and peace of mind without telling his story publicly.
Daniels also admitted that she became upset when Cohen appeared to hold off on paying, but eventually paid. Necheles was also asked about a 2018 statement by The Wall Street Journal denying she had a relationship with Trump after she wrote about the NDA. Daniels said his lawyer gave him a statement and told him he had to sign it. She said she wanted to tell her story later that year after Cohen began speaking publicly about her.
Asked whether Trump promised people he would play a role in the arrest, Daniels said, “No.” Necheles then asked her about a post on social media where someone called her a human toilet, to which Daniels replied, “Exactly! It made me the best person to flush an orange peel.” Necheles asked if that meant she would be the one to get rid of him. Daniels said that was “hyperbole.”
“I’m not a toilet either,” he said.
Daniels spoke more slowly and seemed more confident Thursday than in her first day on the stand, but her voice shook when Necheles asked her about the various mean tweets she was the target of, including one that referred to her as an “old whore.” “disgusting degenerate whore”. “When someone attacks me, I will defend myself,” she said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.
After Daniels testified, her attorney, Clark Brewster, told NBC News that she was “shaken” by the ordeal and “relieved” by the work to be done.
“He’s been cross-examined in communication over the years, and it’s not easy to have your memory strained like that and to answer questions with instant recall, and it was quite an accomplishment,” Brewster said, adding, “He did a great job of getting his point across.”
During discussions about the defense’s renewed request for a mistrial, Merchan said he was surprised Trump’s lawyers did not object to parts of Daniels’ testimony.
She quoted Daniels as saying Trump told her: “I thought we were getting somewhere, we were talking, and I thought, ‘You’re serious about what you want.’ If you want to get out of that trailer park.”
“I’m bummed that I’ve never lived in a trailer park,” Daniels said.
The judge said he struck that part of his statement.
Trump sat blindfolded for parts of Daniels’ testimony. He was accompanied to court by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who left earlier in the day. On his way out of court, Scott took some jabs at the three people who blocked Trump’s criticism of the gag order in the case – the daughter of Judge Juan Mercana, the wife of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo.
Scott didn’t name any of the three, but it was clear who he was referring to, including saying “the judge’s daughter is a political operative.” It’s unclear whether prosecutors will try to challenge the comments as violating the gag order. The order prohibits Trump from commenting “or directing others to do” about individual prosecutors or relatives of those involved in the case, along with comments about witnesses and jurors.
Trump’s former White House executive assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, testified later in the day that she saw Trump sign the checks in the Oval Office and was “very upset” by Daniels’ allegations.
Westerhout said he got to know Trump in 2016 when he worked at the Republican National Committee. He said there was concern at the RNC after the October 2016 release of the “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump’s 2005 speech. he can prey on women without their consent.
Westerhout said when asked if there was talk at the RNC about potentially replacing Trump as the Republican nominee at the time.
Trump ran and won the election, and he said he helped plan the president-elect’s meetings at Trump Tower, which led to his job at the White House.
Her duties include acting as a liaison between Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, coordinating with Trump’s aide there, Rhona Graff, on matters of company concern, such as travel schedules, mail or phone calls.
He said he asked Graff for a list of Trump’s contacts, which Graff sent him. The list includes information for Cohen and David PeckerThe former National Enquirer publisher testified that he worked with Trump and Cohen to suppress scandalous stories about Trump, including Daniels’ allegation.
Westerhout said Trump was “very upset” when the Daniels story became public. She then broke down in tears as she recalled losing her job in August 2019 shared personal information about his family at a dinner with reporters that Trump believes are confidential. He called the incident a mistake and said, “I learned a lot from my experience.” He also defended his former boss, saying he believes he was treated unfairly. He will continue to testify on Friday.
After Daniels testified, Blanche told the judge she changed her story, saying she felt there was a power imbalance between them and that she blacked out and felt light-headed when they started having sex. He also said there was no reason for prosecutors to ask him about hitting him with a magazine before the meeting, or about Daniels testifying that Trump did not use a condom.
“It has nothing to do with a falsified business record, but it’s very prejudicial. It’s a dog whistle for rape,” Blanche said.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told Merchan: “It’s a mixed bag of details, a motive. That’s Mr. Trump’s motive to buy his silence.” He also suggested that Trump could rebut the story under oath. “If they want to testify that the sex never took place , this is their authority,” he said.
He also said there were “some very humiliating details that were intentionally left out because we didn’t want to embarrass the defendant.”
Merchan said he agreed with Blanche that there were no condom questions or answers, but noted at the time that the attorneys had no objection to that line of questioning. The judge also noted that Blanche said in her opening statement that Trump did not have sex with Daniels.
“Your denial forces the jury to choose who they believe. “Donald Trump, who denies that there was a match, or Stormy Daniels, who claims that there was,” said Merchan.
In addition to the sex, which Daniels said took place after meeting Trump at a popular golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, she told the jury that Trump made sexual advances in 2007, which she denied. Four years later, he said, a mysterious man warned him:Leave Trump alone” after giving a magazine interview about their first date. Daniels said the article was never published thanks to Cohen, Trump’s then-“cleaner” and lawyer.
Cohen later paid Daniels $130,000 to hush up his lawsuit. Trump’s return of the money to Cohen is the basis of a criminal case against Trump accused of falsifying 34 case documents related to the payment. He pleaded not guilty.
Daniels was followed on the stand by Trump Organization employee Rebecca Manochio, an assistant to the company’s former CFO Allen Weisselberg. He said FedEx would verify his signature after Trump went to the White House and deliver it to the appropriate person at the company when it was returned. His testimony was used to include records about Trump’s checks to Cohen.
After Manochio, prosecutors subpoenaed HarperCollins Publishers CEO Tracy Menzies. He was brought in to read a book Trump co-authored for the company, “Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life.” One of the chapters in the 2007 book was called “Trust No One.”
“I just can’t accept infidelity,” the book mentions a woman who has been unfaithful. The book says: “I do everything in my power to make her life miserable. “My motto is ‘Always be equal. When someone breaks you, turn them on your back’.”
The DA’s office is closing in on the final group of witnesses. Steinglass estimated this week that prosecutors will present their case by May 21.
One person who will not testify is former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims she had an affair with Trump that began in 2006 and was paid $150,000 to keep quiet by the National Enquirer in 2016. Trump rejected his claim. Blanche Mercana said prosecutors told her she would not take the stand.